Hey polish lovers.
Today while I was hibernating at home watching Real Housewives in my mani cave mindlessly playing candy crush the sun came out, oh the glorious sun!!! It inspired me to take some pics of my cave in other words “my happy place”.
I thought hmmm why not share the pictures with you guys?!? Just a glimpse into my work space. I mean only people who read and or follow nail blogs would really get my “mani cave” or possibly understand my obsession with nail polish.
Maybe you will appreciate the fact that I have the little bottles of fun displayed like art on my walls; truthfully having them displayed out in the open really leads to manicure inspirations.

So grab a coffee or a cocktail and sit back and enjoy some photos of my “happy place”, the place where the manis are created.

Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!! ❤❤

Stay tuned for the next installment of the diary of a nail polish addict.

Thursday December 12, 2013
It’s beginning to look at lot like Christmas…everywhere you go.
It’s snowing on my wordpress page and I have candy cane nails. How much more Christmas can you get 😉
These candy cane nails were a bit of a challenge at first. I got a new stamper from amazon…you know the XL squishy stamp. Boy do you really have to practice practice practice to get no where near perfect. But I can see the potential with this stamper so I will not give up.
To achieve this look I first started with white underwear; Salon Perfect’s Sugar Cube.
Once that dried I added my new SquareHue pearl white called broadway. This is a sheer pearl white, just perfect for that candy look.
After my whites completely dried I found my candy cane stripes. BM-423 from the bundle monster holiday plate collection.
I have never stamped on my candy cane stripes I have always used the tape method, so this was all new to me. Less prep time that is for sure.
For my stamps I used my other new SquareHue polish fifth avenue a lovely high gloss creme RED. I love this red, can’t wait to play with this more, in fact I also put it on my toes.
The December SquareHue box is amazing. I can’t praise this company enough I love every single box I have bought. This is my 12th month and I don’t intend on stopping my subscription any time soon. I just love the element of surprise every month.

And finally to add some sparkle on the candy cane nails I applied my out the door hologram silver top coat. This just sets off the whole look. I am really liking this candy mani.
What do you think…stamps or tape. I will post a link of my past taped candy canes:2012 Candy Cane Nails2011 Candy Cane Nails
Boy have I come a long way…guess clean up was optional in 2011, lol!!!

I vote stamps with a little stamping practice my candy canes should be closer to perfect next year!!

Thanks for stopping by!! ❤❤

Stay tuned for the next installment of the diary of a nail polish addict

Wednesday October 16, 2013
Tonight my nails are going to make you crave candy.
I have done a candy corn mani every year for about three years. Each year I change it just a lil bit. In the past I did layered gradients and free handed the lines using no tape. This always became problematic because the orange under the white tip always came through and turned my white tips pale yellow, annoying.
This year I decided to try my mad skills by doing a sponge gradient. My second gradient this month.
I was so scared I wouldn’t be able to pull this off, but actually I kind of love my candy corn nails this year. I love how the colors blend together and make them look so realistic.
So first I painted all my nails white with Sinful Colors Snow me White. Once that dried all the way, I broke out the makeup sponge. I used a wedge shaped cosmetic foam sponge made from latex. I picked these up for under $3 at Target.
Colors I used for my gradient are all Sinful Colors orange Courtney Orange, yellow Pull Over and the white is the same color I used for my underwear.
I applied polish to the sponge in the order I wanted and sponged it on to the white nails. At first it was blah…but don’t give up just keep going over until you have the desired opacity. You will notice sponge marks but don’t worry your clear top coat with eliminate those. Don’t be afraid to blend using you sponge.
Now I won’t sugar coat it…major clean up was necessary. I used acetone remover with and a paint brush and a Q-Tip.
Be patient eventually you will get it all removed.
After I did my Seche Vite fast dry top coat. I then applied my Salon Perfect matte FX top coat. This helped to give my nails a real candy corn look.
Quick TIP: be sure it is completely dry before you apply top coat after the sponging…or you will get polish smearing like me. I hate when I get impatient.

What do you think…do they make you crave candy corn?? I know I am.

Thanks for stopping by!! ❤❤

Stay tuned for the next installment of the diary of a nail polish addict.

Sunday October 6, 2013
Hello good evening.
So I must confess…I didn’t blog my last mani. I know I know naughty polish blogger. I just didn’t love it. I wore it but I didn’t have the heart to share it. Mr am1e says that was a mistake. He thought that they looked cool and very spooky. Does this mean I am getting blog burn out?? Well if I was it has gone away for now.
I can’t wait to show you what I did tonight. I def got my blog vibe back with this one.
Colors used:
Pinky, index and Thumb: China Glaze texture polish Toe-Tally Textured. A pumpkin orange totally perfect for a Halloween mani. I must say at first I loathed the thought of textured polish, but I have since changed my mind. It totally grew on me and I love adding a stamp to it.
Middle and ring: China Glaze Def Defying with Julep Sofia on top. Sofia is a fun glow in the dark glitter green, ohhhhh ahhhhh.

So it’s October and of course I had to make this all about Halloween. To make them more festive I added some fun stamps.
On the orange textured polish I added a pumpkin stamp from my bundle monster plate BM-224 with my Sinful Colors Black on Black polish. I love this creepy jack-o-lantern image with vines.
On my green nails I added a couple different stamping images from BM-H07. First I added the far left Halloween word image using Sugar Cube a white Salon Perfect polish which is great for stamping.
Once that dried I added a witch hat n spider image from that same plate using Black on Black again.

Ok so layering stamps may be my new obsession, I love love love this look. It adds a whole new dimension.
Hope you all have a great week and I will strive not get blog burn out again.

Thanks for stopping by!! ❤❤

Stay tuned for the next installment of the diary of a nail polish addict.

Monday September 23, 2013
Happy Monday. Hope your week is starting off great.
Today marks the first full day of fall here in Iowa. I love fall it’s my favorite season. I get to decorate for all my favorite holidays, cozy up on the couch on cool nights and burn candles. Smell the crisp fall air filled with the smell of leaves and camp fires.
I just had to play with fall colors tonight.
I decided on a dark teal Finger Paints polish called Fall-ing for you, teal is my favorite color plus it’s really popular this year. This color is really pretty but it has a frosty finish. Sometimes I don’t mind frost polishes but this one is a bit streaky. Rather than getting all OCD about it I just decided to add a matte top coat. The matte top coat gives it a lovely jewel tone and evens out the frosty streaks.
I tried a Salon Perfect matte top coat that I picked up from Wal-mart this time. I must say not bad at all. I see little to no difference in formula from Essie matte, well except price.
To add more of a fall feel I decided to stamp on some fall leaves. Using Bundle Monster Holiday plate H11 I stamped on the far left leaf image using my SquareHue Scorched Summer polish. This is a burnt orange Creme polish. It stamped very easily.
I just am loving the teal and burnt orange combo.
I did add a Finger Paints bar glitter polish to my pinky finger Gourd or Bad?. This bar glitter has all kinds of fall colored bars. Makes for a nice accent nail.

Thanks for stopping by!! ❤❤

Stay tuned for the next installment of the diary of a nail polish addict.

Monday August 19, 2013
I have a very girlie mani to show you tonight. Oh so pink, glittery and gold!!
Of course I could not just settle on one color. So on my pinky, middle and thumbs I started with a gold metallic SquareHue polish called Honor. This polish was part of the 0713 SaluteCollection. As a base for my middle and index fingers I used Sinful Colors pink called Cotton Candy. This pink is so girlie and pretty. Of course those two colors were just too plain. So I has to add some glitz and stamping.
On my middle and pinky I added a Sephora pink n gold glitter polish called Ice Princess. My one and only Sephora polish :). It’s a super fun glitter polish, very flashy. I also added some bows and heart stamps over Ice Princess using Pueen stamping plate 29 with Sally Hansen Black Out polish.
On my Cotton Candy using that same stamping plate I added more hearts and bows using Honor. Honor is an amazing stamping polish. On my gold thumb I added some black bows. To tone down the bows I added a fun Maybelline holo gold polish called Alluring Rose.
I am kind of loving this mismatched glitzy mani.
Do you love random nails like I do??
Thanks for stopping by!! ❤❤

Stay tuned for the next installment of the diary of a nail polish addict.